


The Holding of Hands, the Breaking of Glass

by InfiniteBooks



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bisexual Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Pansexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, crooked teeth is a love song, how soulmate marks work in this universe barely makes sense, tw alex is outed by luke to reggie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26917672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfiniteBooks/pseuds/InfiniteBooks
Summary: Once he was getting dressed, he saw it. It was on the right side of his chest, about an inch long. It was a microphone that had a design of three ghosts on the center of it. Reggie’s mind couldn’t help but wander to Luke. Reggie shook his head, just because Luke was a singer, didn’t mean he was the only person in the world who used a microphone, and anyway, Luke didn’t have anything to do with ghosts.And Reggie didn’t like Luke like that. He didn’t like any boys like that.OrReggie doesn't believe in soulmates because all his parents do is fight. Luke does believe in soulmates and thinks he's found his. But then they die and it turns out ghost soulmate marks are a thing which just makes Reggie's life harder than it already was.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Julie Molina, Luke Patterson/Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Past Alex/Luke Patterson
Comments: 72
Kudos: 451





	The Holding of Hands, the Breaking of Glass

**Author's Note:**

> okay, so i haven't written anything in a long time, at least something i've actually finished. this is the first thing i've written for julie and the phantoms. i've only watched the show all the way through once so it's probably not going to be very accurate, but i took a lot of dialogue and scenes from the show because this is basically just a retelling of season one, but with some soulmate shenanigans. the magic system of this world really makes no sense, so you just have to take everything at face value. the outing scene is not made into a very big deal and never really mentioned after it happens and alex doesn't know about it, but don't read if that will trigger you. oh and the title is lyrics from the song wasteland, baby! by hozier.

Reggie was the oldest in the band, meaning he would be the first to get his soulmate mark. The other boys were definitely more excited than he was for his 16th birthday. Reggie didn’t put his faith in soulmate marks. He just had to look at his parents to see that the marks aren’t always the blessing that everyone says they are.

Waking up the morning of his birthday, Reggie didn’t even go searching for the mark. He took a shower and pointedly looked away from the mirror when he stripped down.

Though, once he was getting dressed, he saw it. It was on the right side of his chest, about an inch long. It was a microphone that had a design of three ghosts on the center of it. Reggie’s mind couldn’t help but wander to Luke. Reggie shook his head, just because Luke was a singer, didn’t mean he was the only person in the world who used a microphone, and anyway, Luke didn’t have anything to do with ghosts.

And Reggie didn’t like Luke like that. He didn’t like any boys like that.

That night at band practice the other boys kept glancing at Reggie. Reggie could see how much they wanted to know what his mark was, but it usually wasn’t something you shared with other people and it definitely wasn’t something Reggie was going to share. He would rather pretend he never got a soul mark (his parents had fought last night and Reggie had heard glass being smashed).

“Stop looking at me,” he snapped at the other guys. They all at least had the decency to look guilty. “I’m not showing you guys the mark, you know how I feel about it.”

“Right, sorry Reggie,” Alex said.

“Yeah,” Luke said. “That’s totally cool.”

“Can we just start practicing now,” Reggie said and grabbed his bass. They all nodded and got into place, though Reggie still felt their eyes on him.

The next birthday was Bobby’s. He didn’t seem to mind showing off the record that was on his shoulder. Alex and Luke both looked at it in awe, while Reggie rolled his eyes.

After Bobby was Luke. Luke was probably the most excited about getting his mark, so at practice Reggie was ready for it to just be an hour of them all looking at Luke’s mark, but surprisingly, Luke kept it covered.

He had walked in with a dopey smile on his face and declared that he wanted to keep it a secret because it felt too personal.

“You’re such a romantic,” Alex said while Bobby made a kissy face.

“Yeah I am,” Luke said.

Alex was next, though as his birthday got closer and closer, Reggie couldn’t help but notice that he seemed to be getting less and less excited about his mark.

The day before his birthday, he seemed to be dreading it more than Reggie had been.

“You okay?” Reggie asked while they were packing up to go home after practice.

“Yeah, I'm good,” Alex snapped.

“Dude, I'm just looking out for you,” Reggie said, letting the concern seep into his voice.

“Sorry, I just need to get home,” Alex said and basically sprinted out.

“What was that about?” Luke asked as he came up behind Reggie.

“I don’t know,” Reggie said. “I don’t think he’s looking forward to getting his soulmate mark anymore. I wonder what happened.”

“I'm going to go after him,” Luke said. “I know you hate soul marks, but maybe as someone who actually believes in them, I can make him feel better.”

“Yeah, okay,” Reggie said and waved as Luke ran after Alex.

The next day Alex and Luke had walked into practice together. Alex didn’t seem as anxious as he was the day before, he still seemed nervous, but it was more of an excited nervous.

“So, what’s your mark?” Bobby asked.

“I'm keeping it a secret,” Alex said.

“So you’re feeling better?” Reggie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Alex said and then smiled at Luke. “Luke explained how great the marks are and I'm feeling a lot better about it now.”

“Good for you,” Reggie said. He was truly happy for Alex, but Reggie sometimes wished he wasn’t the only person in his group of friends that didn’t believe in soulmate marks. (“It’s your fault our marriage is suffering. Maybe if we didn’t have such a let down of a son, we would be happy.”)

“You’ll show it to us once you’ve found her though, right?” Bobby said.

“Y-yeah, of course,” Alex stuttered. “Once I find her.”

“Let’s start practicing!” Luke yelled as he ran over to his guitar. Reggie couldn’t miss the way that Alex smiled at Luke while Luke started playing.

Reggie wondered what exactly had happened the night before.

It wasn’t until 5 months later that he found out.

The night had started out pretty badly. His dad had come home drunk and his mom hadn’t come home at all. Reggie knew how a night like this usually ended. He didn’t want to have to break into his mom’s makeup again to cover the bruises up, so he grabbed a duffel bag, filled it with enough things to last him a few days, cracked his bedroom window open, and snuck out.

He made his way to their studio, at least they called it the studio. Alex would always roll his eyes whenever they did, since it was just a rundown garage.

They all had keys, so they could go at any time, but Reggie was still surprised to see Luke laying on the couch playing his guitar.

“Luke?” Reggie asked as he closed the door behind him.

“Reggie,” Luke sighed.

Reggie could tell by Luke’s body language that he had planned to be alone.

“Am I interrupting something? Because I can leave.”

“No, no,” Luke placed his guitar next to the couch and motioned for Reggie to sit next to him. “You can stay.”

“Can I ask what’s wrong?” Reggie said as he sat down.

“It’s a very long story.”

“Well I'm planning on staying here for the next couple of days, so I think I have enough time,” Reggie joked.

Luke quirked his mouth into a small smile, before going back to looking like someone just shot his puppy.

“I don’t know man,” Luke faltered. “It’s kind of a lot, and it’s not just my story.”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me,” Reggie said. “But I'm always here for you.”

“Thanks man,” Luke looked up to Reggie and that’s when Reggie noticed the tears that were pooling in his eyes. He quickly tried to wipe them away. “I'm such an idiot!”

“Luke, you’re not an idiot,” Reggie said. “If anyone’s an idiot here it’s me.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Luke groaned. “Okay, I'm going to tell you, but I gotta do it fast before I change my mind.”

“Okay,” Reggie said cautiously. Since Luke was getting so worried about telling Reggie what was going on, Reggie was scared that Luke was going to tell him something really bad, like he wanted to quit the band or something.

“It all started the day before Alex’s birthday,” Luke said. “So you know how I went after him to talk to him?”

“Yeah,” Reggie nodded.

“Well—I really shouldn’t be doing this,” Luke said and gripped his head. “But, he told me that the reason that he was worried for his mark was because he knew that the mark wasn’t going to match with a girl, it was going to match with a guy.”

Reggie stared at Luke, his mouth wide open. “You mean?”

“Alex is gay.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Reggie said. “Obviously that’s fine.”

Reggie ignored the thoughts that bubbled up in his head. Things he had been pushing down. Daydreaming about kissing boys—kissing Luke. He shook his head, he couldn’t go there, not ever.

“I should have waited for him to tell you, but I just need someone to talk to right now,” Luke said guiltily.

“It’s okay,” Reggie wrapped his arm around Luke’s shoulders, trying to calm him down.

“Okay, so he came out to me and said how he hoped he wouldn’t have a mark because he’d rather not have a soulmate than have to deal with all the problems that come with having a male soulmate,” Luke explained. “But I told him that I support him and accept him and I basically calmed him down, but then we decided that I would stay up until midnight with him so I could be there when his soul mark appeared to keep him calm because he was worried he would have a panic attack.”

Reggie nodded along, he’d had to help Alex through many panic attacks in the past and it’s always scary to watch someone you love be in pain, but it’s even worse knowing that they have to deal with it alone sometimes, so if Alex ever felt like he was going to have an anxiety attack, one of them would stay with him until he calmed down.

“So, it was midnight and then we found his soul mark and,” Luke inhaled sharply. “It’s the mark I have.”

Reggie felt like the world had come to a halt. His brain couldn’t process what Luke was saying. He replayed the words in his head. Alex’s soulmate mark and Luke’s soulmate mark are the same. That means they’re soulmates. That means Luke likes guys too. But that means—

“You’re soulmates,” Reggie muttered.

“I guess so,” Luke said.

“You don’t seem as excited as you should be,” Reggie said, thinking back to how happy Luke was when he got his mark. Maybe Luke didn’t like guys after all.

“I was excited in the beginning. I was happy and I really felt the connection with Alex, it made sense,” Luke said, Reggie didn’t know why that hurt. “It felt like how you should feel with your soulmate and it still does.”

“Then why are you crying?” Reggie asked.

“Maybe you were right Reggie, soulmates aren’t what they’re cracked up to be,” Luke let a tear fall.

“No, I was being stupid,” Reggie said, trying to do anything to make Luke feel better. “You and Alex can work out whatever’s going on. My parents aren’t the rule, they’re the exception to the rule.”

“It’s not that Alex and I don’t like each other, it’s just that the longer we’ve been together, the less I want what we have to be romantic,” Luke said. “I can tell Alex feels the same. I just thought I had found the love of my life and now all we do is fight about our relationship because it’s not what we want it to be.”

“You guys are so close, you guys can work this out,” Reggie said, his voice straining. He didn’t want Alex and Luke to be like his parents, people forced into a relationship that just makes them miserable.

“I don’t know if the universe got it right Reggie,” Luke whispered like he was telling a secret.

“It’s going to turn out okay,” Reggie said and just wrapped his arms around Luke.

Life went on after the incident in the studio. That morning Reggie had woken up alone, Luke was long gone. Reggie tried not to let that hurt him, but once he saw Luke and Alex smiling with each other, Reggie thought it was worth it. Though he couldn’t stop the traitorous thoughts—why couldn’t that be him and luke? 

The band started to get more and more popular and Reggie tried to forget the fact that he knew Alex and Luke’s secret which wasn’t that hard in practice as he never had to deal with another Luke breakdown. At least not one about Alex.

It was a few months after Luke confessed to Reggie that Alex knocked on his door and asked to talk to him in private. Reggie knew what was coming and he did everything he could to make sure that Alex knew that Reggie loved him no matter his sexuality.

The band got a gig at the Orpheum and that’s when it felt like everything was coming together, but it was also when everything started to fall apart.

It started with Luke.

Once they got the gig, Luke decided to tell his parents that he was going to be taking music seriously. It ended with Luke running away and living in the studio.

Luke had refused to talk to any of them for the first few days after he ran away. He just spent his time writing music.

They were all worried that Luke was going to do something drastic. They could see that the guilt of leaving his parents was eating him up inside. But one morning Luke had gotten up and seemed to be acting normal again.

Reggie and Alex exchanged knowing looks. They knew that Luke was hurting, but didn’t want to let it show. They played along, but always watched out for him. Reggie would sometimes see Luke sneak off to watch his family and when Luke got back, Reggie was always waiting with a Star Wars DVD and a hug to cheer him up.

After Luke was Alex.

Luke and Reggie were in the middle of one of their Star Wars marathons when Alex rushed into the studio.

He had tears streaming down his face and was clutching a backpack that was almost bursting with things.

“I have to stay here,” Alex said, almost out of breath. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he threw his bag to the ground.

“Alex, what’s going on?” Luke said.

Luke and Reggie both got off the couch and moved over to Alex to help calm him down.

“They know.”

“Who knows what?” Reggie asked.

“My parents know that I'm gay,” Alex looked away from the two of them and that’s when Reggie noticed the blood running down the side of Alex’s face.

“Are you okay? What happened?” Reggie led Alex to the couch so he could sit down, hoping that the injury wasn’t serious.

“They didn’t react well,” Alex reached up and touched the blood. “They basically said that I could never step foot in their house again and when I tried to reason with them, my dad threw a plate at me.”

“What the fuck?” Luke balled his hands into fists. “I'm going to go beat the shit out of him.”

“Don’t,” Alex pleaded. “I just want to forget about it. I want to move on. I know who I am and I know that the people who really love me won’t care.”

Reggie grabbed onto Alex’s hand and squeezed while Luke grabbed onto the other.

After Alex, it was finally Reggie who moved into the studio permanently.

He didn’t have one large breaking point like Luke or Alex. It was more or a build up. Day after day, night after night. It was like he couldn’t go one minute without hearing some sort of argument.

One night he just decided to fuck it. He couldn’t deal with it anymore and he packed his stuff and went to the garage.

Luke and Alex didn’t even look up once he walked in, like they were expecting this day to come. Looking back on that past month, it honestly wasn’t surprising. Reggie spent more time at the garage than his actual house. He spent more time with Luke and Alex than his actual family.

“Hey, come play this game with us,” Alex called.

Reggie smiled and sat down on the couch. He couldn’t help but think that maybe Luke and Alex were his actual family.

The night of the Orpheum show couldn’t have gone worse—Reggie literally couldn’t think of anything worse than dying by hot dog.

But suddenly they were in the future and they were ghosts. Reggie tried not to think about the fact that his mark had to do with ghosts. Though, since he was dead and it was 25 years later, his soulmate had probably already moved on. Their matching soulmate mark would have turned from the inky black, to a light grey since Reggie had died. Reggie didn’t know why that thought bothered him since he never wanted to meet his soulmate or be with them.

They had appeared in their studio which wasn’t their studio anymore and they met Julie.

After she got over her initial shock, she turned out to be pretty nice.

Since they were 25 years in the future, Julie decided to sit them down and give them some lessons on how the world worked.

Julie showed off her phone (Reggie still couldn’t believe that it was a phone), she explained how people could listen to music on something called spotify, and some more technology.

She reached over to show Alex an article about the legalization of gay marriage when she yelped.

“Uh, are you okay?” Luke asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Julie smiled. “I just saw Alex’s soulmate mark and got excited. I'm such a sucker for soulmate romantic comedies.”

“How could you have seen it? It’s on the inside of my arm,” Alex raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, then I guess I just saw the tattoo you have of two people holding hands on the back of your neck,” Julie said.

“I don’t have any tattoos,” Alex’s eyes were wide open.

“I mean it’s not so unusual to have two soulmate marks,” Julie shrugged. “I have two. A platonic one and a romantic one.”

“A platonic mark?” Luke asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“Oh I guess you guys died before that all went down,” Julie said. “Over the past few years there’s been more research on the marks and they discovered that there’s such a thing as a platonic soulmate mark.”

“How do you know if it’s platonic or not?” Luke asked. Reggie knew what Luke was getting at, thinking back to his conversation with Luke in the garage about his and Alex’s relationship.

“It’s basically just a feeling,” Julie looked off into the distance. “I wasn’t sure which one was which, until I matched my romantic one with someone and I just knew.”

“What about your platonic one? What does it feel like when you meet them?” Luke asked.

“Actually, my platonic one has always been grey,” Julie looked down at the floor. “I guess my platonic soulmate died before I turned 16.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry Julie,” Luke said.

“Well maybe I'll meet them as a ghost someday,” Julie smiled.

“But, how do I now have a new soulmate mark,” Alex said. Reggie saw Alex glance at Luke. “Since we’re dead and you’re the only one who seems to be able to see us, I won’t be able to meet anyone new.”

“I'm not sure, I've never actually met a ghost before so I don’t know how their soulmate marks work,” Julie said sarcastically. “I guess it’s like you get given a soulmate or soulmates every lifetime, so maybe death is technically just another form of life—like a do over—and now there’s someone you’ll meet while you’re a ghost who is another soulmate.”

“I guess that makes some sense,” Alex furrowed his brow.

“Do you guys have a new one?” Julie asked looking excitedly back and forth at Luke and Reggie.

Luke did a quick check on his arms while Reggie sat awkwardly. Having two marks wasn’t something he wanted.

“Reggie are you okay?” Julie said.

“Reggie doesn’t believe in soulmate marks,” Alex explained.

“Oh, sorry,” Julie said.

“No, it’s fine,” Reggie said. “I get that it’s important to a lot of people, so I understand your excitement.”

Luke had stopped squirming around, giving up on looking for a second mark. They all fell into a comfortable silence.

“I’ve just always wondered who my platonic soulmate was,” Julie pulled the sleeves of her shirt up. “I just wish—“

“Julie?” Luke asked.

“I can’t believe it!” Julie yelled. “It’s black!”

She lifted up her wrist showing a small design of a microphone with three ghosts on it. Reggie’s breath got caught in his throat, that was his mark.

“That’s our mark!” Alex said and grabbed Luke’s hand.

“No, that’s my mark!” Reggie blurted out.

“What?” Luke jumped up from the ground and rolled up his pants to show off the mark on his ankle.

Julie and Reggie stared at it in awe, while Alex just took off her jacket and lifted up his arm to show his mark. Everyone turned to look at Reggie. Reggie lifted up his shirt to show the mark.

“Everything makes sense now!” Luke said.

“That’s why my mark was grey, because you guys were dead,” Julie said and started jumping up and down. “I found my soulmates!”

Reggie couldn’t stop the smile that was breaking out on his face. It was like once they showed each other their marks they had become connected, like he didn’t need to know anything about them to know that he loved them. He tried to blame this feeling on something other than the magic of soulmates, but couldn’t come up with anything.

Reggie then realized that these were the marks that Luke and Alex had thought were their romantic soulmate mark, that must be why they hadn’t been clicking romantically, because the universe had specifically designed them to be best friends.

Reggie didn’t know why the thought of Alex and Luke not being soulmates made him happy, maybe it was just the fact that he wouldn’t have to see Luke crying over it ever again.

“So we’re soulmates,” Alex said looking at all three of them in the eyes. When he reached Luke, Reggie saw his smile soften, it wasn’t sad, more bittersweet. Reggie couldn’t imagine what it felt like to think that someone was your romantic soulmate for almost a year and then find out that they weren’t.

“So what do we do now?” Julie asked.

It turns out that after you find out that you have three platonic soulmates who are ghosts, you start a band.

Julie could really sing and she could make them visible. So it was a win-win situation.

They had accidentally performed at Julie’s school and were now known as Julie’s hologram band which Reggie didn’t have a problem with, though Julie was worried about people asking too many questions.

Even with the hologram problem, life—or death—was pretty nice. Though, Reggie could see that Luke and Alex were acting a bit strange.

Reggie was pretty sure they had broken up once they had found out that they weren’t actually soulmates, especially with Alex having a new soulmate mark. Even though their relationship hadn’t been working out beforehand and they were still platonic soulmates, Reggie could tell that they were tiptoeing around each other. He doubted that Julie noticed, she didn’t seem to have realized that they thought they were each other’s soulmates. They would tell her at some point, but Luke and Alex first needed to get over this awkwardness.

The day after the pep rally, Alex was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself about them being ghosts. Reggie and Luke tried to calm him down, but he ended up leaving to clear his head, Reggie wondered how much of his stress was due to the fact that he was a ghost and how much was about him and Luke.

Luke and Reggie were left alone and Reggie wasn’t sure if he should ask Luke about what was going on between the two of them, but it turned out Reggie didn’t have to ask.

“I wish everything would go back to normal,” Luke groaned. “So Alex and I wouldn’t be so awkward around each other.”

“You guys are platonic soulmates,” Reggie said. “You’ll work it out. I know you guys and you guys love each other.”

“It’s not that we’re messed up from the breakup, that was more of a relief,” Luke fiddled with his hands. “I think it’s just that we now know there is another person out there that is our actual romantic soulmate. We were each other’s soulmates, at least we thought we were, for like a year. It’s kind of like we’re replacing each other.”

“I would say I understand, but I don’t,” Reggie said. “But I get that it’s gotta be hard to see Alex’s new mark when you don’t have one.”

Luke looked down at the ground, “I do have a new mark.”

“What?” Reggie yelled. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I only found out when Julie brought us the extra clothes,” Luke said. “When I was changing I found it and it’s not that important. Our band is the most important thing at the moment.”

“Well,” Reggie said. “I understand why you guys are nervous around each other, but how do you really feel about Alex having a new mark.”

“I'm happy for him,” Luke smiled. “I want him to find his soulmate.”

“Exactly, and that’s all you have to tell him because I can tell you he feels the same way about you and your mark.”

“You’re actually really smart Reggie,” Luke wrapped his arms around Reggie and gave him a hug. Reggie melted into it and when Luke pulled away it left him wanting more.

While Alex had gone out to clear his head he had bumped into a ghost named Willie who seemed to be knowledgeable enough on ghost stuff to maybe help explain their ghost problems, though he didn’t know why Julie was able to see them.

Julie being able to see them was more of a problem for her than them. Julie had to deal with the fact that if she told anyone they would think she was crazy, but at the same time Julie didn’t want to lie to anyone.

Julie had told them after their performance at the school that she needed to tell the truth to her romantic soulmate Flynn.

Reggie had seen Flynn when they went to the pep rally. Flynn and Julie had been holding hands when they teleported in.

Julie had told them how supportive Flynn was when Julie was trying to get back into the music program and Julie felt like a shit soulmate for lying to her.

Reggie and the other boys immediately agreed to perform for Flynn to prove they were ghosts. They decided to play a song Julie wrote about Flynn.

When Julie had brought Flynn into the garage, Reggie could tell that Flynn thought Julie was crazy, but once they started playing and they became visible to Flynn, Flynn was freaking out.

Julie stopped singing while they continued to play their instruments so Flynn could talk to them.

“They’re ghosts!” she said while putting her hand through Reggie’s shoulder.

“We prefer musician spirits,” Alex said.

“I can’t believe this is real,” Flynn said. “But I'm so glad you aren’t crazy.”

Flynn and Julie hugged, “I'm just glad I can stop lying to you.”

“Anything else about these ghosts I should know,” Flynn said looking around at all of them.

“Actually,” Julie said. “You know how my platonic soulmate mark was grey.”

“What do you mean ‘was’.”

“Well, you’re looking at my soulmates,” Julie said. “Surprise.”

“Okay, this is kind of crazy,” Flynn said. “But you guys did help Julie get music back into her life, so maybe you guys will be good for her, but if any of you do anything to hurt her, I will fuck you up.”

“Of course,” Luke said and smiled. “But we wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.”

Julie jumped back into the song and her and Flynn danced around as they finished it off.

Band practice became a regular thing and Flynn had become somewhat of their manager and had gotten them a gig at Julie’s dance. They needed to make sure they were ready for it even if it was only a school dance.

They were about to get started when Luke mentioned showing Julie some of his songs, this resulted in the realization that Bobby, their old band mate, had stolen Luke’s songs and had gotten rich and famous off of them.

Reggie couldn’t believe it. He had been their friend and he did this to them. Reggie had even had the nerve to feel bad for him for being left alone after all of them died, but the sympathy was gone now that Reggie knew that Bobby hadn’t even tried to honor their memory.

“Julie, what we’re his other hits?” Luke asked.

“Get lost.”

“Yeah, I wrote that,” Luke said and he was getting angry about it.

“Long weekend,” she added.

“Luke wrote that one too,” Reggie said. The more songs they found out that Bobby stole, the more Reggie wanted to rip his head off. He took everything that Luke had been working on.

“Crooked teeth,” Julie said.

“And that,” Alex said. “It was about Reggie.”

“What?” Reggie turned to Alex. “I thought it was about you. I don’t like that song anymore.”

“Wait, this is freaking me out,” Julie said. “Trevor’s songs are kind of big to me. He’s the one who introduced me to rock.”

“Yeah, Luke introduced you to rock,” Alex added.

Luke started to go on about how Bobby stole their legacy, but Reggie couldn’t stop thinking about crooked teeth. Yeah it was a song about crooked teeth, but Reggie had always thought it was about Alex because there was a sense of it being a romantic song. Reggie must have just been interpreting it wrong.

Before he could think about it any longer, he, Alex, and Luke decided to go pay Bobby a visit.

Being a ghost meant it was hard to get payback on those who’ve wronged you, which seemed counterintuitive based on how many movies about ghosts haunting people there are, but at least for new ghosts, figuring out their powers was a bit hard.

They decided to ask Willie about a way to be visible full time. Willie said he could bring them to a ghost club where they would hopefully get the answers they wanted.

They were going to go straight from the ghost club to Julie’s school dance, so Reggie decided that he should probably change his outfit a bit to match the occasion.

Unlike Luke and Alex, he hadn’t really seen the need to change clothes up until this point since they were dead so their clothes couldn’t get dirty.

He dug through the clothes Julie gave them, and didn’t find anything that he liked except for a new pair of black jeans and a black tank top that he decided to switch out his white one with.

He went into the bathroom of the garage just in case Alex or Luke decided to pop into the garage using the ghost teleportation power and accidentally see him naked.

He took off his leather jacket, flannel, and necklace and placed them to the side to put on later. Then he removed his old jeans and white shirt.

He grabbed the new jeans to put on and as he bent down to pull them up he froze. There, on the side of his left calf, was a mark.

Reggie’s breath hitched and he let his hands trace over it. It seemed to be a piece of paper with something written on it. Reggie almost broke his back bending his body around to get a better look at it, but by getting closer to it Reggie realized it was a song. The words he thought he saw were actually music notes.

Reggie pulled his hand away. The new mark made a confusing situation even more confusing.

He had gotten over the whole fear of soulmates when he found out he had platonic soulmates. They weren’t going to end up like his parents because they were just friends, but now with this new mark, which was more than likely a romantic mark, Reggie had to rethink everything again.

At first, he looked at the mark in awe, but now it was bringing out his anger. Why did he have to end up with two? Why did the universe hate him?

He tried to forget about it and finished getting ready because like Luke had said, there are a lot more important things than soulmates at the moment.

Reggie came out of the bathroom ready for a night free from discussing soulmates, but that quickly ended when Reggie found Alex sitting on the couch looking like he had done something bad.

“You seem upset,” Reggie sat down next to Alex. “You want to talk about it.”

Alex seems like he was struggling within himself to decide whether he wanted to talk to Reggie about what was bothering him or not.

“Willie’s my soulmate,” Alex blurted out.

“What? How did you find out?” Reggie asked.

“When he knocked me over he saw the mark on my neck, I probably should have realized that anyone would easily be able to see it, but I've kind of been used to no one but Julie being able to see us,” Alex said. “After he saw it he showed me his.”

“That’s great!” Reggie exclaimed. “And Willie seems like a great guy.”

Reggie had noticed that Willie and Alex had been acting a bit weird when they had talked to Willie about wanting to be visible. Reggie had just assumed Alex had a crush, not that Alex and Willie were soulmates.

“I just don’t know how to tell Luke,” Alex put his head in his hands. “Should I even tell Luke?”

“Alex, you have to tell him,” Reggie said. After basically having this same conversation with Luke, Reggie knew what he had to tell Alex. “How do you feel about Willie being your soulmate?”

“It’s amazing,” Alex’s eyes lit up. “It’s like everything finally makes sense. It’s like I'm finally alive.”

Reggie tried not to think about how Alex described soulmates and tried to ignore the mark on his leg. He was happy for Alex, but he knew that not all soulmates felt that way.

“And how do you feel about Luke having a soulmate?” Reggie asked, using the same question that he asked Luke.

“I'm happy for him obviously,” Alex said.

“And that’s how Luke feels about you,” Reggie said. “You guys are still soulmates, you still have a bond stronger than anything on earth. You guys just need to start being transparent about how you feel and stop tiptoeing around each other.”

“You’re right Reggie, but I still don’t know if now is the right time,” Alex said. “Maybe I'll wait for Luke to find his soulmate.”

“That could be years from now,” Reggie said.

“We’re ghosts, we’ve got all the time in the world,” Alex shrugged.

Before Reggie could explain what a terrible idea that was, Luke popped in.

“You guys ready,” Luke asked. “It’s time to meet up with Willie.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “Reggie and I were just talking about an idea for a new song.”

“We were?”

“Yes,” Alex nudged Reggie.

“Okay,” Luke eyed them both. “Was it any good?”

“It was a country song so you wouldn’t like it,” Reggie said and nudged Alex back.

“I'll try not to comment on the fact that you guys are acting weird,” Luke said.

“Let’s just go,” Alex said.

They all teleported away from the garage to meet up with Willie.

The ghost club was amazing. Not only was there a great performance, there was food. Actual food that Reggie could eat.

He hadn’t realized how much he missed normalcy until being at the ghost club where everyone could see him and talk to him. Having Julie was nice, but being able to talk to someone other than Julie, Luke, or Alex was refreshing.

When Caleb came to talk to them, Reggie tried to ignore Alex’s awkward stuttering about his and Willie’s magic. Alex wasn’t being very subtle, so Luke had to be an idiot if he didn’t realize Alex at least liked Willie.

Reggie was hoping that tonight Alex and Luke could talk this out and finally put an end to their distance.

Once they got time to mingle, Reggie pulled Luke aside.

“Hey, I need to talk to you,” Reggie said.

“Is it about the ‘song’ you and Alex were writing,” Luke said sarcastically.

Reggie rolled his eyes. “I think you should talk to Alex about your feelings about his soulmate mark.”

“Maybe I should wait for more privacy,” Luke said and gestured to the people in the club.

“I just think it’s better to talk to him sooner rather than later,” Reggie’s eyes watched Alex and Willie. They were sitting at the table talking.

Luke looked over. “Is that what you and Alex were talking about, his obvious crush on Willie.”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

Luke’s eyes darted back and forth between Alex and Willie. “Wait, you don’t mean that they’re—they can’t be.”

“They are,” Reggie said. “Alex didn’t want to tell you, but he isn’t doing the best at keeping it under the radar.”

“What am I supposed to do,” Luke’s hands started shaking. “This is too much.”

“Just tell him what you told me,” Reggie said and gently pushed Luke in Alex’s direction. “You got this.”

“Yeah, I got this,” Luke nodded to himself before purposefully walking over to Alex who had just finished his conversation with Willie.

Reggie decided not to eavesdrop, but he was able to tell by their body language that the conversation seemed to be going well. They were both smiling which was a good sign. Reggie just couldn’t wait for everything to be back to normal.

Once Luke got up from the table to go talk to someone else, he gave Reggie a thumbs up and Reggie gave a sigh of relief he didn’t even know he was holding, everything was okay.

The sense of security quickly ended once they realized that they were running late for Julie’s dance. They quickly ran out of the ghost club after saying goodbye to Willie and Caleb, who gave each of them a stamp. Reggie couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong after they left, but he didn’t have time to think about it before they teleported to Julie’s school only to see an empty gym.

Julie was sitting on the floor and Reggie could already feel his guilt building up. When Julie asked if the reason they missed the dance was because of them wanting to get back at Bobby, the guilt hit him full force. She was their soulmate and they hurt her just because they wanted revenge.

“We’ll play the next school dance,” Luke said to try to make it up to her.

“Another dance where you can bail on me and make me look like a fool? Save it,” Julie said, her voice full of hurt and anger. “You know what really sucks? Our songs were good and all three of you knew what I've been through and how tough it’s been for me to play and then you do this? Bands don’t do that to each other, soulmates don’t do that to each other. This was a mistake.”

“You mean the school dance right?” Luke said.

“No, I mean joining a band with you guys.”

Reggie watched as Julie ran out of the gym. Luke called after her, but she didn’t turn around. Without Julie they didn’t have a band, without Julie they were missing a part of themselves.

They stood in silence, unsure of what to do when they were suddenly hit with a shock that radiated pain from their chest out to the rest of their body.

“What was that?” Alex said as he clutched his chest.

Reggie didn’t have an answer, it seemed like everything that had been going well had suddenly come crashing down.

They really messed up and they decided that a way to try to make it up to Julie was by booking Julie and the Phantoms another gig. They found a place to play where a lot of agents would be and they signed themselves up. They felt another one of the jolts, but they brushed it off. It probably just had to do with the fact that they ate food, ghosts didn’t have a stomach so eating probably wasn’t a good idea.

They waited for Julie to come home to surprise her with the news about the gig, but it didn’t change the fact that she was still angry at them. Luke pushed a bit too hard leading to Julie blowing up in his face. 

When Julie said that Luke only cared about himself, Luke flinched away. Reggie wanted to reach out and comfort Luke, but he stayed put.

Julie turned and walked away. Reggie didn’t know how to deal with Luke and Julie fighting. This isn’t how he thought platonic soulmates would work and he couldn’t stop the memories of his parents rising to the forefront of his mind.

Reggie had just finished fixing Luke and Alex’s relationship and now Luke and Julie were fighting. Maybe he was wrong to get his hopes up. No matter what Reggie did, his soulmates would always fight because that’s the curse he’d been given. It was his fault his parents fought, if he had been a better son they could have been happy together, he must not be a good enough soulmate either.

“Dude she didn’t mean it,” Alex said, but Luke still teleported away.

“Where’s he going?” Reggie asked.

“Where do you think? Remember what today is?”

Reggie thought back to the date he saw on the calendar earlier that morning and he suddenly remembered, it was Luke’s birthday. Luke was going to see his parents.

“We need to talk to Julie to fix this,” Reggie said. Alex nodded so they poofed into the house where Julie was sitting on the couch.

They tried talking to her, but she ignored them. Reggie almost preferred the yelling. They always say that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. He knew that Julie was just pretending to not care, but it still made him afraid of the fact that maybe their soul bond was doomed to fail.

“We want you to know that Luke isn’t as selfish as you think he is,” Alex said as he walked closer to Julie.

“Yeah, you’ve got him all wrong,” Reggie added. Luke was probably the most caring person Reggie knew. Luke had always been there to help Reggie whenever his parents got out of hand. Luke was the person Reggie trusted most to help him through his bad days. Luke had always been the person Reggie turned to for help. Luke meant a lot to him.

“You remember that song Unsaid Emily?” Alex asked. Julie had found the song when she was flipping through Luke’s notebook, but Luke never told her what it was about. “Can we at least show you who that’s actually about.”

Julie was silent for a while before finally agreeing.

They brought her to Luke’s old house, his parents were the only ones that lived in the same house that they lived in in 1995.

Alex, Julie, and Reggie hid behind some trees in the backyard so they could watch the inside of the house.

Luke was sitting on the counter top of the kitchen crying. While his parents brought out a cake. Reggie itched to go in and give him a hug, but he knew he couldn’t. This was a special moment between Luke and his parents.

Alex and Reggie explained Luke’s past to Julie. Julie was crying by the end of it and Reggie knew that Julie and Luke’s relationship was going to be fixed.

When Luke had teleported back into the studio, Julie welcomed him and happily told him that she was rejoining the band. They immediately started practicing because they only had a few hours before they were going to perform.

Julie ended up being grounded so they helped her sneak out the window because they weren’t going to miss their chance to perform again.

After getting Julie out of the house, everything was going smoothly again. Carrie, Bobby’s daughter (it was so weird to think that he was old enough to have a kid), was performing on stage.

Finally it was their turn to play. Julie started the song and once they became visible on stage, Reggie felt the energy again. He missed being able to play in front of an audience. Music, for all of them, was their way of connecting with each other and the world. Once they started playing all of their inhibitions and problems melted away. The thought of Reggie’s soulmate mark disappeared from his head and he forgot about his confusing feeling about Luke as he went over to Luke’s microphone and sang with him.

Everyone was out of their seats once they finished the song. Reggie couldn’t be happier with their performance. He hugged Alex and Luke once they became invisible again. He wished Julie could be a part of the hugs, but she would just phase through them.

They all congregated over by the bar where Flynn was sitting. Flynn had congratulated them, but mostly was just speaking to Julie, the only one she could actually see.

Suddenly, they noticed that one of the music executives was walking over to them. Reggie felt the excitement inside of him build, but just as Julie was introducing herself, Julie’s dad showed up.

Again their dream was slipping away. Their chance to get a record deal was stomped by Julie being pulled away by her dad back to her house.

Reggie didn’t hold it against Ray. The actual fact that her dad cared enough to go out and find her and bring her home, was something Reggie never had. He knew that Julie was probably a little mad at him for ruining their chance, but Reggie couldn’t help but appreciate how good of a dad he was.

The morning after their performance, Reggie decided to go hang out with Ray. He didn’t have anything else to do and he enjoyed being able to sit with someone who couldn’t see him and just say things he would never tell Luke or Alex.

“Hey Ray,” Reggie said. Ray continued pouring over a cookbook that he had laid out on the counter. “I think I might like boys, but I still like girls. I don’t know,” Ray obviously didn’t reply. “I just, I think I want Luke to kiss me. Is that bad to say? He’s my platonic soulmate and I saw how that worked for him and Alex, but I still think I might like him.”

Julie came down stairs, so Reggie had to stop his rambling. He needed to just forget about his feelings.

Ray excitedly told Julie about a gig that he got for the band.

“Best dad ever,” Reggie said, smiling at Julie, while Julie just rolled her eyes.

Okay, so the gig he got for them was at Julie’s house, but it was still good enough for Reggie, especially if it was being filmed and put on youtube, which Julie told him was a good thing.

It always seemed that when things were just starting to work out, something inevitably went wrong.

They had finished playing their new song in front of Julie’s friends and it had gone better than Reggie had expected. Everyone had been up and dancing and they seemed to love the song.

While Julie was inside with Flynn and her family, Reggie and the rest of the guys were outside playing basketball.

“It feels like we should be celebrating or something. What do you guys wanna do?” Reggie asked and passed the ball to Luke, but before Luke could catch it they were hit with another one of the jolts.

They all fell to the ground and clutched at their chests. This one was the most painful one Reggie had felt yet.

“Not that,” Alex coughed out.

“That wasn’t like the other ones,” Luke got up off the ground. “It’s getting worse.”

“Why’s this happening to us?” Reggie asked. He couldn’t remember doing anything that would cause this.

“It’s because you guys are in serious trouble,” a voice said.

Reggie turned and saw that it was Willie.

Alex stepped forward, “Willie?”

“We need to talk,” Willie said. “But not here.”

Willie brought them to a random street because, as he explained, he wanted to be somewhere where Caleb wouldn’t easily be able to find them. The reason for this, according to Willie, was because Caleb was the one who had caused the jolts.

“All these jolts we’re feeling were because Caleb put a stamp on us?” Luke asked.

“He feels threatened by you,” Willie explained. “He wants you under his control. I mean you’re the only ghosts who can be visible to lifers without his help.”

“So he wants to take our souls so we’re forced to join his band?” Reggie asked.

“Caleb has always been interested in soulmate marks and the fact that you guys have a living soulmate is something that doesn’t happen all the time and a living soulmate who can make you visible is unheard of,” Willie said. “Usually people who have living soulmates were soulmates before they died. I don’t think I've ever heard of people becoming soulmates with living people after they died. This is what makes you special and why Caleb wants you.”

“So what exactly did Caleb do to us?” Reggie asked.

“Caleb takes part of your soul using his own twisted form of soulmate magic. That’s what the mark on your skin is, his signature soulmate mark,” Willie explained.

“And you let him do this to us?” Alex said. Alex was the one who had been hit hardest by this news as Willie was his soulmate. Reggie had always believed that soulmates were shit, but inside he had always wanted it to work out for Alex and Luke and now Alex’s soulmate had betrayed them.

“I can’t stop him, he owns my soul alright, he owns everyone’s soul at that club. If he even knew that I was here talking to you, he would destroy me,” Willie looked at Alex. Reggie could see that he was begging for Alex to believe him and trust him again.

“So if we don’t join his club then the weird power outage thing continues until there’s no power left at all?” Reggie asked. Willie nodded in confirmation. “So what exactly happens when the power goes out?”

“That’s it, you’re done,” Willie said.

“Yeah, and what exactly do you mean by we’re done?” If Reggie’s heart could still beat it would be racing.

“You just, you don’t exist anymore, not anywhere,” Willie avoided making eye contact with them when he said this.

“What?” Alex yelled.

“So we have no choice,” Luke said. He was balling his fist at his side like he wanted to punch something. “We have to say goodbye to Julie, give up everything that we built together and work for Caleb, that’s some club you guys got going on.”

“But there is another option, that’s why I'm here,” Willie said.

“Another option?” Alex rolled his eyes.

“Just please hear me out, alright if you guys could just figure out what your unfinished business is, you do it in time, you could cross over and be free from all of this.”

“Okay, so what’s our unfinished business?” Luke asked.

“I don’t know, but since you all died at the same time it might be something you need to do together.”

“Why should we listen to a word you say?” Alex said.

Willie flinched, but he looked resigned to what Alex said, like he also believed that there was no reason for Alex to trust him.

“Because I care about you Alex, you’re my soulmate,” Willie said. “I know I haven’t been acting like one. I thought I could bring you to the club and protect you, I thought Caleb would respect the fact that you were my soulmate, but I was wrong. I’ve been avoiding you for the past few days because I knew you wouldn’t want me anymore after I told you what I did.”

Willie and Alex looked at each other, Reggie waited to see if Alex would respond, but he just turned away.

“I better get back before they notice I'm gone,” Willie said and teleported away, Reggie had heard in Willie’s voice that he had been crying.

“This is all my fault,” Alex said. “Reggie you’re right, soulmates are fucked up. I shouldn’t have trusted Willie so easily and now we’re screwed.”

“We all wanted to go see Caleb,” Luke said. “And if I had met my soulmate I would have trusted them. I know it’s not my place, but Willie wasn’t lying when he said all that stuff.”

“Well it doesn’t matter anymore because either we’re going to move on to whatever’s after being a ghost or disappear from existence,” Alex said. “So this was probably the last time I'll ever see him.” Reggie didn’t comment on the fact that Alex looked pained at the thought of never seeing Willie again.

They stood there in silence for a minute, Reggie didn’t know what to say to Alex. He couldn’t reassure him about Willie because he knew whatever he would say would just seem hollow and fake. Reggie was the biggest non believer in soulmate marks. But when he thought about his feelings towards the marks he thought about his three platonic soulmates. Could he really say that he didn't believe in soulmates when he would die, or since he’s already dead, disappear into nothing for all three of them.

“We have to tell Julie,” Reggie said. If they disappear she’ll be all alone again, of course she’ll have Flynn and her family, but the microphone with the ghosts in it would turn grey again.

“We can’t do that, this just means more loss in her life,” Luke said. “But if we don’t want Caleb to own our souls we have to figure out what our unfinished business is.”

“Yeah man and how are we supposed to do that? There was so much we wanted to do,” Alex said.

Reggie noticed that Luke had started staring at something behind Alex and Reggie.

“What is it?” Alex asked as he and Reggie turned around.

“But the night we died there was one thing we wanted to do together,” Luke said and pointed up to the sign that was lighting up the whole street. They were standing right in front of the Orpheum.

“Play the Orpheum?” Reggie asked and Luke nodded. It made sense, right before they had died, all Reggie had been thinking about was playing that show. 

“Getting that gig was literally impossible,” Alex said. “Even after people knew who we were we had to hustle, call in every favor we had, it took us years.”

Reggie had to agree that it seemed like there was no way they would ever get to play at the Orpheum anytime soon, but before he could say anything they were hit with a jolt again.

“We don’t have years,” Luke said.

The next day Alex and Reggie had been wallowing around in the house, unsure of what their next step was to get them to be able to play the Orpheum. Reggie hung out with Ray for a bit, hoping that an idea would come to him, but nothing did, at least it made him feel better and he was able to get more of his feelings about Luke off his chest. The more he tried to push it down, the more they grew.

Luke and Julie had been out all day and it wasn’t until Luke found Alex and Reggie in the garage that night that he told them what they had been doing. Luke had visited his parents, well Julie was the one who had officially visited them, Luke had been invisible.

As Luke told them what happened, Luke couldn’t hold back his tears. Julie had given Luke’s mom the lyrics to the song he wrote for her. Reggie and Alex both immediately gave him a hug. 

“That was really brave,” Alex said. “I'm glad you did that, you don’t deserve to live with the guilt anymore.”

“I just wish they could see me,” Luke said. “But I don’t know if that would actually make it better.”

“With the song, they can now start to move on,” Reggie said. “Obviously they’ll still love you and miss you, but this has been crushing them for 25 years. Now they can have some closure.”

“Thanks Reggie,” Luke said. “It probably wouldn’t have been good for me to show up only for me to disappear into nothingness only a few days later,” Luke cleared his throat. “Okay, to move on to a different subject, did you guys come up with any ideas on how to play the Orpheum?”

“Nothing,” Alex sighed.

“I think we should tell Julie still,” Reggie said. “She’s our soulmate, she deserves to know.”

“Um,” Luke said. “I kind of already told her.”

“What?” Reggie yelled. “You were the one who didn’t want us to tell her.”

“You were right, she deserved to know,” Luke said. “But I was also right, it really freaked her out and she ran away from me after I told her.”

“Well, I guess we’re at a standstill now,” Alex said as he laid himself down on the couch and started playing with his drumsticks. “We have no plan and one of the members of our band is avoiding us.”

Reggie and Luke agreed as they sat down on the chair and the floor respectively. They sat in silence, Reggie wasn’t sure what to say. It seemed like their only options now were either disappear into nothing or join Caleb, and none of those appealed to him.

He started to play a little on his bass, but then Julie ran into the garage.

“Snap out of it!” she yelled so loud Alex fell off the couch and his drum stick went flying.

“I think you broke Alex,” Reggie said.

“Do you guys want to cross over or what?” Julie asked. Reggie looked at both Luke and Alex, but they seemed as defeated as he felt. “Get it together!”

“They’re never going to let us play the Orpheum,” Luke said.

“Someone once told me that you don’t ask for permission, you book gigs by doing,” Julie said. “This isn’t over, we’re soulmates for a reason, to help each other.”

“Yeah, but like Luke said, people don’t just play the Orpheum because they want to,” Alex said.

“People don't, but ghosts do,” Julie smiled at them. Reggie felt a spark. Julie was right, maybe they could do this, or at least not give up so easily.

They stayed up way into the a.m. to come up with a plan that would get them playing at the Orpheum as soon as possible. Their idea was to make the opening band somehow miss the concert so Julie and the Phantoms could take their place. Alex offered up Willie to be the one to mess with the opening band. Reggie and Luke both raised their eyebrows when Alex mentioned Willie, but Alex said that he had talked to Willie and they were back to being tentative friends. Reggie was glad that Alex had forgiven Willie, Reggie didn’t even really blame Willie for what happened.

It was getting late and although ghosts didn’t necessarily need to sleep, it always felt better when they did, and Julie definitely needed it. Before Julie went back up to her room, she pulled Reggie aside.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something?” Julie said. “Alone.”

“Yeah, of course,” Reggie said. They went outside of the garage and sat on the rock wall. “What is it?”

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Julie said. “But I noticed that you seem to get flustered a lot around Luke.”

“What!” Reggie yelled, he immediately felt his face heat up. “I don’t get flustered around him, it’s not like I like him or anything.”

“Reggie, you don’t have to lie to me, it’s okay,” Julie said, clearly seeing through his lie.

Reggie sighed, “It’s just, he’s my platonic soulmate, so I shouldn’t like him.”

“You guys only have around a day left before you go to whatever’s after this,” Julie said. “I just don’t want you two to have any regrets.”

“When you say ‘you two’,” Reggie couldn’t hide the hope in his voice. “Do you think Luke likes me too?”

“When I got the lyrics for Unsaid Emily out of his journal to give to his parents, I saw another song,” Julie said and pulled out a piece of paper. “It’s a love song and he had written a name at the bottom of it, but crossed it out. His handwriting is terrible as it is, so I didn’t think I would be able to tell who it was for, but the lyrics make it pretty clear that it’s about someone with dark hair who plays the bass and then I saw that he had written the letter r, as if starting to write the name again. I'm about ninety nine percent sure it’s about you.”

“What, you’re crazy,” Reggie said. “It was probably just about a random girl from the 90s and anyway, are you sure that’s Luke’s song? He used to show us all of his songs and I've never heard of this one.”

“That’s the thing Reggie, Luke didn’t write this in the 90s, he wrote it a few days ago,” Julie said. She handed him the song and sure enough the date was only a few days before.

“But, Luke’s always wanted to find his soulmate,” Reggie said, his hands trailing along the paper. “He never wanted to actually be with someone who wasn’t his soulmate, especially me.”

“This song makes it seem like he wants to be with you,” Julie said.

“What about his other soulmate, or even my other soulmate?” Reggie said, he reached down to touch his own mark on his leg.

“Wait, you have another soulmate mark too?” Julie said.

“Yeah, I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t believe in soulmates,” Reggie said, his voice getting soft. “But can I tell you something Julie?”

“Of course.”

“The reason I never believed in soulmates was because my parents always fought, they never seemed to love each other, so I thought finding my soulmate would just make my life miserable,” Reggie looked down at the piece of paper that was covered in Luke’s unmistakable scrawl. “But after meeting you and finding out that you and the guys were my soulmates, I think I finally get it. You guys mean so much to me and I know you make my life better. It makes me think that maybe my parents lied to me when I was younger and they weren’t soulmates. I just don’t know how soulmates could treat each other like that.”

“Reggie, I'm so sorry about your parents,” Julie reached out and grabbed his hand. “You mean a lot to me too.”

“I just don’t know if I can go after Luke if I know there is someone out there for him and someone out there for me, even if we never get the chance to meet them,” Reggie said.

“I understand,” Julie said. “I just don’t want you guys to finish the unfinished business of playing at the Orpheum, but just end up with more unfinished business.”

Reggie laughed, “Maybe I'll talk to him, but only for you, not for myself.”

“Thanks,” Julie said, she got up and kissed him on the cheek. “But you don’t have to if you don’t want to, I completely understand.”

Reggie watched her leave and once she was inside the house, Reggie started reading the song. Once he started he knew Julie was right, it was about him and it was a love song. It was everything he had always wanted, but now there was something else he wanted, his soulmate.

Reggie had gone to sleep and all he could think about was the song. In the morning he tried to forget about it, but he couldn’t. The lyrics just replayed over and over in his mind. When he and the boys started the plan by going to the Orpheum to hopefully get Julie and the Phantoms to be the new opening band, he had to result to ignoring Luke so he didn’t have to think about the song, he was pretty sure Luke could tell that something was wrong when Luke asked him how he was doing and Reggie didn’t say a word.

They had successfully got them to book Julie and the Phantoms, so they teleported back to the garage where Julie was waiting by the phone. After a tense minute, she finally got the call. Once they officially were playing at the Orpheum, Reggie finally was able to forget about the song and celebrate with the rest of them.

While Julie was getting ready for the show, Reggie, Alex, and Luke stood around the piano to work on the setlist.

“Julie and I were thinking we should start with Stand Tall,” Luke said.

“Perfect,” Alex said.

“Sounds good,” Reggie looked away from Luke, not wanting to make eye contact, but his lack of enthusiasm was enough to make Luke question him.

“Sounds good?” Luke said. “Dude, wake up! I want to hear it sounds awesome! I know this isn’t how we wanted things to turn out, but we gotta be all in tonight. This is our second chance of playing the Orpheum.”

“I get it,” Reggie said. “But it’s hard, do we even know what’s on the other side when we cross over? Do we all still get to hang together? You guys are the only family I have.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going to happen either, but it’s not like we have a choice,” Alex said. “We’re all going to be leaving Julie behind, one of our soulmates, and I'm leaving Willie behind, but it’s better than being taken by Caleb.”

“There was so much more we could have done,” Reggie said, he looked up at Luke. “What about your soulmate? Do you wish you could find them?”

Luke looked down, “I'm beginning to think that maybe soulmates aren’t the end all be all. If I'm with you guys in the afterlife, I'll be okay. Though, leaving Julie behind is going to be the hardest part of this.”

Reggie thought over what Luke said about soulmates. Luke had been the biggest believer in soulmates out of all of them, but suddenly he didn’t care. Reggie thought of the piece of paper that was balled up in his pocket, the song. Luke wrote that knowing that all Reggie was was his platonic soulmate. Reggie knew how that worked out for Alex and Luke, but this Luke didn’t seem to care. It was like Reggie and Luke had switched, now Reggie was the one who cared about soulmates, while Luke didn’t.

They were hit with another jolt right before Julie walked in that left them all gasping for air.

“Are you ready?” Julie asked. They all didn’t know what to say, this was going to be their last night as ghosts, whether that meant they crossed over or disappeared into nothing. “What’s wrong?”

“Yeah, we just got rocked pretty hard by one of those jolt things,” Alex said as they walked over to Julie.

“But we’re fine,” Luke added. “Band circle?”

“Yeah,” Julie said.

They all made a circle, Reggie stood next to Luke on one side and Julie on the other. They all reached out and held hands, though Julie’s hands phased through their own. Reggie tried to memorize the feeling of holding Luke’s hand, after they crossed over, he may never see him again. Reggie looked at Julie, remembering what he told her last night, about not having regrets. Would he be able to live with himself if he never told Luke how he felt? If this was their last day as ghosts, they wouldn’t even get a chance to find their actual soulmates, so didn’t Reggie deserve to be happy with Luke for a few hours?

“We don’t know what brought us here,” Luke started out. “But what we do know is that you’re a star Julie, and just because this is our last night together doesn’t mean we won’t be watching you from above, or,” Luke motioned towards the ground causing them all to shake their heads at him. “Now let’s go rock this show! Let’s give them a night that they’ll be talking about till the sun comes up, okay! Legends on three!” Luke put his hand out in the middle of the circle.

“One,” Alex said and placed his hand on top of Luke’s.

“Two,” Reggie put his hand in.

“Three,” Julie said and added her hand to the pile.

“Legends!” they all shouted and raised their hands in the air.

They heard a car horn meaning that Julie had to go, she said goodbye and the three of them were left in the garage alone again.

Reggie looked at Luke, this was his chance to tell him how he felt. No regrets.

“Luke, can I talk to you,” Reggie said.

“Yeah, sure.”

They climbed up the ladder to the higher part of the garage while Alex fiddled around with his drum set, giving them privacy.

“So what’s up?” Luke asked once they had sat down.

“So there’s been something I've been thinking about for a long time,” Reggie said. “And I thought I would never tell you, but now that this might be my last chance to, I'm just going to do it. I’ve felt this way for a while now—”

Before he could finish his thought they heard a bang and Alex yelled. They both sat up and looked over the railing. There, sitting on the piano, was Caleb.

“Hello boys,” he smirked and then snapped his fingers.

Reggie blinked and suddenly they were standing in the Hollywood Ghost Club. Reggie had his bass and he wasn’t wearing his normal flannel and jacket, he was in a red suit. He looked over and saw that Luke and Alex were also now in different outfits.

Caleb came into view and stood in front of them, “Well don’t you look nice.” they glared at him, but he only sighed in response, not seeming bothered by their obvious anger. “I know you guys aren’t my biggest fans and an eternity at my club might seem overwhelming, but humor me one last pitch.”

They didn’t move, though it was more out of fear for what Caleb would do to them if they did than wanting to actually hear what he had to say.

“Isn’t it nice that you’re all here together,” Caleb said. Reggie glanced at both Luke and Alex, he knew moving on could mean never seeing them again, but he also thought of the person that wasn’t standing with them, Julie. “If you join me, you’ll be together forever and I can give you more of what you want.”

“We don’t care about the food and we can already be seen when we perform with Julie,” Alex challenged Caleb.

“I'm not talking about that,” Caleb slid up next to Alex. “I'm talking about your soulmate.”

Alex didn’t reply. He averted his eyes away from Luke and Reggie. Reggie knew that Alex didn’t want to leave Willie, but Willie didn’t want Alex to be controlled by Caleb.

“If you join me, you’ll be together forever,” Caleb said.

“But I won’t be with my other soulmate, Julie,” Alex said defiantly. “And you’ll own part of our soul anyway, it wouldn’t be the same.”

“Ah yes, two soulmates, very rare. It is interesting that all three of you have two soulmates.” Caleb said and then moved to stand in front of Luke and Reggie. “It is sad about leaving the Julie girl behind, but here, you two will still have a chance of finding your soulmates and Alex can have his.”

Luke and Alex both whipped their heads around to look at Reggie.

“Two soulmates?” Alex said, surprised.

“You have a romantic soulmate?” Luke asked, his eyes wide and hurt.

“Yes,” Reggie looked Luke directly in the eye. Reggie knew that he wanted Luke, maybe one day he would have found his soulmate, but right now Luke was the only person he could imagine ever loving like that. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about Luke, and I'm just going to say it now because I don’t know what’s going to happen to us,” Reggie felt an urgency he had never felt before, he couldn’t be interrupted again. “I don’t care about finding my soulmate. If we only have a few hours left I want to spend them with you. I want to be with you.”

Reggie looked at Luke, waiting for a response, but there was none. Luke’s eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly parted like he wanted to say something, but didn’t know what. Reggie felt fear build up inside him, maybe Julie had been wrong and Luke didn’t like him like that.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Caleb said. Reggie heard the glee in his voice. “If you stay with me, Reggie, you could be with Luke forever. You might be missing that girl, and that’s regrettable, but look at everything you could have here.”

Caleb then suddenly teleported from standing in front of them to onstage where he started singing. Reggie looked tentatively up at Luke again, but Luke didn’t look anywhere in Reggie’s direction. Had Reggie really just misread the signs that much? Was Luke going to hate him now? At least in a few hours Reggie may never have to see Luke again and maybe that would be a good thing.

Suddenly Reggie started feeling himself tapping along to the song and right as he noticed that Alex had teleported onstage and had started playing the drums.

Reggie tried as hard as he could to stop moving along to the music, but he couldn’t stop. He knew it must be Caleb forcing them to do this. Reggie then found himself onstage playing the bass, but it was like his fingers were moving on their own.

Finally Luke was brought onstage. Reggie looked back at Alex in fear. What were they supposed to do? They couldn’t control themselves.

Reggie watched Caleb as he performed. Caleb was showing the three of them off to the audience and the audience was loving it. Reggie knew that this was just Caleb’s way of showing them what they could have if they decided to stay, but Reggie thought of the audiences whenever Julie and the Phantoms would perform. They were always as involved as the Hollywood Ghost Club crowd, and they were excited for Julie and the Phantoms and their original music, not for the fact that they were watching ghosts perform.

Caleb finished the song with a bow. Reggie found himself bowing without his consent, but once he straightened out he felt himself gain control.

Alex ran up to him and Luke after getting off the drum set.

“Julie!” Alex said. “We’re missing the show!”

“How are we supposed to get out of here if Caleb’s watching us?” Luke said, his voice shaking.

“I got that covered,” walking up from behind Luke was Willie. Willie motioned to where Caleb was talking to some of the guests. “I’ve got him talking to his highest paying customers. If you go now, he won’t notice.”

“Thanks Willie,” Alex said and then grabbed Willie’s hand. “Come with us.”

“What?” Willie said, glancing back at Caleb. “I can’t.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Alex said. “Just come with us now and we’ll worry about Caleb later. I want you to be safe.”

“And I want you to be safe,” Willie said.

“Willie,” Alex pleaded. “I'm going to be crossing over in a few minutes and I want you to be there. I want to see you in the crowd in my last moments.”

Willie looked nervous, but he nodded in agreement, “I'm going to miss you so much.”

“I don’t want to interrupt,” Luke said. “But we have to get to Julie. I don’t know how, but I feel like I can hear her singing and she’s started Stand Tall.”

Reggie knew what Luke was talking about. It was like he could hear her in his head, maybe it was some weird soulmate mental connection.

“It’s almost our time to come in,” Reggie said. He looked at Alex and Luke. “See you boys on stage.”

They all teleported out at the same time.

Performing with Julie was infinitely better than performing with Caleb. Reggie felt at home with his soulmates surrounding him. It made him forget all of his worries and he was only focused on playing the music. It was like they were all connected as they sang together.

Reggie didn’t think about that fact that this would be the last time he would ever be able to perform in front of a crowd. He didn’t think about Luke rejecting him. He didn’t think about his soulmate mark. He didn’t think about this being the last time he would ever see Julie.

When they finished the song and walked to the front of the stage to bow, Reggie didn’t think of anything other than the love he had for the other three people on stage and for the music they made together.

While they took in the applause, Reggie realized he didn’t feel any different. Nothing had happened, they were still ghosts. He looked over at Luke and Alex and he could tell that they were thinking the same thing.

Before Julie could notice something was wrong, they all disappeared from the stage, going back to the garage.

“What happened?” Alex said once they all appeared.

“I guess the Orpheum wasn’t our unfinished business,” Luke said.

They all looked at each other in fear and confusion.

“This is the end then,” Alex said. “We’re going to turn into nothing.”

“We can’t tell Julie,” Luke said. “We have to make it seem like we crossed over.”

“I don’t know if hiding in her garage is the best way to do that,” Alex said.

“She probably won’t come in here,” Reggie said. “We’ll turn the lights off and she’ll just go straight to her room or just hang out with her family inside.”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “And besides, I don’t want to spend our last moments in some random place, I want to spend them somewhere special.”

They all sat down on the floor in the dark. Reggie thought back to everything that had happened in this garage. It had been where Sunset Curve started and then where Julie and the Phantoms started. Reggie, Luke, and Alex had called this there home for a few months. It was where they were when they found out they had booked the Orpheum both times. The garage was almost like a fifth member of their band.

With the lights out Reggie couldn’t make out anything, it was shitty that Reggie wouldn’t even be able to see Luke or Alex before he died for the second time.

“Hey,” Alex said, breaking the silence. “I don’t want to overstep or anything, but Reggie, what you said at the club, I didn’t know you like guys.”

Reggie immediately felt his face heat up, he was hoping he could make it through this without them mentioning his confession at the club and the embarrassing rejection.

“Yeah, I like boys and girls,” Reggie said. He was glad that they couldn’t see his face because he didn’t want Luke to be able to see his embarrassment. “But can we not talk about that.”

“Actually, can we?” Luke said.

“You made it pretty clear how you feel,” Reggie said. “I shouldn’t have listened to Julie.”

“What’s Julie have to do with this?” Alex asked.

“She showed me a song Luke wrote, and she said Luke wrote it about me, but I guess she was wrong.”

“No,” Luke said. “She wasn’t wrong. I did write that song about you, I've written a lot of songs about you.”

“Well I guess I read it wrong then,” Reggie said, sounding bitter. Why was Luke playing him like this? Reggie just wanted to spend his last moments without having to deal with the fact that the guy he liked didn’t like him back. “To me it seemed like a love song.”

“And you’re right about that too,” Luke said. Reggie felt someone grab his hand, he could tell by the calluses that it was Luke’s. “I'll be more clear this time, I've written a lot of love songs about you. Because I like you Reggie, a lot.”

“You do?” Reggie said. “But you didn’t say anything after I told you how I felt.”

“I was just in shock,” Luke said. “It was shitty of me not to say anything, but I was just worried that us dating wouldn’t work out, like me and Alex, but now that we’re going to die in a few minutes I don’t really care.”

“What about your soulmate?” Reggie asked. “You’ve always wanted to find them.”

“I don’t care about whoever has my matching mark anymore,” Luke said. “Because I like you.”

Reggie smiled, thinking about his own mark, “Yeah, if someone walked in with a mark of a piece of paper with music notes written on it, I would turn them away.”

“Wait, how did you know what my mark was? Did Julie tell you?” Luke asked.

“What?” Reggie choked out. Reggie was about to ask what Luke was talking about when the doors of the garage opened and the lights turned on.

“You were right, they are here,” Julie said, looking down at all of them. Willie was standing next to her with his arms folded.

“What, how did you know we were here and that we didn’t cross over?” Alex asked as they all stood up.

“Willie,” Julie said, pointing just a bit left of where Willie was standing. “He got my attention by writing on a piece of paper that it didn’t look like you guys had crossed over, just that you guys had teleported somewhere else. I thought you guys would be here.”

“It turns out that the Orpheum wasn’t our unfinished business,” Luke explained and shrugged his shoulders weakly just as they were all hit with jolt. This one knocked them all to the ground. Willie rushed over to Alex, helping him up.

“You guys have to get out of here,” Julie said, sounding desperate. “Go join Caleb, it will be better than not existing at all.”

“No, we can’t go back there,” Reggie said while supporting himself on a chair.

“Please, please,” Julie said, tears started building in her eyes. Reggie felt himself starting to tear up too. “I can’t lose you guys. At least I'll know you’re still okay if you join Caleb. I can’t have my mark turn grey again. Please, do it for me.”

“No music is worth making, Julie, if we’re not making it with you,” Luke said. “You complete us. All four of us are soulmates, we can’t go on without you. No regrets.”

Julie launched herself into Luke’s arms. Everyone was crying by now. This was really it, this was goodbye.

“I love you guys,” Julie said, her arms still tightly around Luke.

Reggie watched as a light began emitting from Luke. His whole body was glowing. All Reggie could do was watch in awe. That’s when Reggie realized that Julie was actually hugging Luke, she was touching him.

“How can I feel you?” Julie said, running her hands along his arms.

“I don’t know,” Luke said, he turned around and looked at Alex and Reggie. “I feel stronger. My soulmate mark is like warming me up.”

“Alex, Reggie, get over here,” Julie said.

Reggie moved so he was standing next to Julie and Luke while Alex went to the other side. Reggie realized that he could touch Julie too and suddenly they were all hugging.

Reggie felt exactly what Luke was talking about. Reggie felt stronger, like Caleb didn’t have any sort of control over them. He felt his platonic mark heating up his body, it was a pleasant feeling. It was almost like he felt alive again. It felt like he was being welcomed home.

When they pulled apart, Reggie felt a burning on his arm. He held it up just as Alex and Luke did the same, showing the mark that Caleb gave them float off their arm. It was gone, they were safe.

“I think the band’s back,” Luke said, smiling.

They all leaned in for another hug. Reggie could get used to this.

“We played the Orpheum,” Julie yelled. They all started laughing and jumped around in a circle.

Reggie couldn’t believe it, they were going to be okay. He wasn’t going to be separated from his family. They finally pulled away from each other and then Alex looked over to Willie, who was standing off to the side.

“Willie, come over here,” Alex said and pulled him into a hug. “Maybe I can save you too.”

“I don’t know,” Willie said, though he accepted the hug. “He has part of my soul already, you guys just had his stamps.”

“Just shut up,” Alex said. “I love you.”

Reggie held his breath, waiting for something to happen, and sure enough, Willie started to glow.

“Yes!” Alex yelled and wrapped his arms tighter around Willie.

“I guess you can beat Caleb with the power of soulmate love,” Luke said. They all laughed in disbelief.

“I guess you can,” Willie said. He and Alex pulled apart, but they were still looking directly into each other’s eyes. “Can I kiss you now?”

Alex nodded enthusiastically before leaning in to Willie’s lips.

“I guess we should give them some privacy,” Julie said. “I wish I could stay here with you guys, but my dad will get worried since it’s already so late.”

“It’s okay,” Luke said. “We’ll see you in the morning. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

Julie hugged Luke and Reggie again, she would have hugged Alex, but he was too busy with Willie.

“Let’s go outside,” Luke motioned to Reggie. Reggie followed him and that’s when Reggie remembered what they had been talking about before Julie had arrived, their soulmate marks.

They sat down where Reggie and Julie had talked the night before. It seemed so long ago, so much had happened. They had been kidnapped by Caleb, Reggie revealed his feelings, they played the Orpheum, almost died, then were saved by the power of love. If Reggie told his past self what his death was going to be like, he definitely wouldn’t believe him.

“So it looks like we have more time than we thought,” Luke said while looking up at the night sky. “I understand if you want to find your soulmate now, though I never thought I'd see the day that Reggie believed in anything even close to the power of soulmate love being able to save the day.”

“A lot has changed,” Reggie said. “I used to look at my parents and think that that was how soulmates were, but now I look at our band and Alex and Willie and see how soulmates really were supposed to be. Now that I think about my parents, I don’t think they were soulmates, they must have just lied to me about it, because there’s no way soulmates would treat each other like that.”

“So I guess, we’re just friends,” Luke said, Reggie heard disappointment in his voice. Luke sighed. “I guess it’s better if we don’t mess up the band, like Alex and I almost did when we broke up.”

“Luke, can I see your mark?” Reggie asked.

“Why? You already know what it is,” Luke said. “But you never told me how you knew.”

“Just show it to me,” Reggie pleaded.

“Okay,” Luke pulled the top of his jeans down to reveal the mark right under his belly button. Reggie couldn’t move his eyes away from it. It was identical to his own mark. “Was Julie the one who told you?”

“No,” Reggie breathed out. “The reason I knew what that mark looked like wasn’t because it was your mark, but because it’s mine.”

“Reggie, it can’t be,” Luke said. “I want it to be, but you’re wrong.”

“I'm not and I'll prove it to you,” Reggie revealed his mark. There was no way Luke could deny that it was exactly the same.

“How—how is this possible?” Luke said. “We can’t be romantic and platonic soulmates.”

“I mean who said you couldn’t be,” Reggie said. He looked at Luke and Luke started back at him, his eyes wide with happiness. “Maybe in our normal life we were meant to just be platonic soulmates, but after we died, we changed a lot so we also became romantic soulmates. I finally accepted the thought of having a soulmate and you accepted the fact that you could love someone who wasn’t your soulmate, though I guess I still turned out to be your soulmate—”

“Reggie,” Luke said, smiling at him. “You need to stop rambling for a second and kiss me.”

“Um,” Reggie stuttered, feeling himself start to blush. “Yeah, yeah I guess I do.”

Luke reached out and placed his hand on the side of Reggie’s face, pulling him towards Luke’s lips. Reggie closed his eyes just as they touched. It reminded him of the hug the four of them had had. While the hug felt like Reggie was coming home, the kiss felt like Reggie was becoming a part of Luke and Luke was becoming a part of Reggie. It was like electricity was flowing through them, connecting them to each other. Reggie couldn’t explain the feeling. It was like everything had been just a bit off, but suddenly the world had shifted into place.

When they pulled apart they kept their foreheads touching and just looked at each other.

“I'm glad we died,” Luke said and Reggie laughed. “It brought us a lot of good things, Julie, the band, and it brought me to you.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to explain this to everyone else.” Reggie said.

“That doesn’t matter right now, that’s something to think about tomorrow,” Luke said. He held Reggie’s hand and squeezed it. “Right now all that matters is that I'm in love with you and that’s how the universe planned it to be.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, i will literally cry tears of joy if anyone leaves a comment. if you're confused about how soulmates work in this fic, so am i.


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